My most demoralising day as a police employee was reading a self-congratulatory intranet news article about how some 20-year-old had been successfully prosecuted and sentenced to a prison term for pointing a laser pointer at a police helicopter. Apparently the judge acknowledged the kid's lack of any previous criminal history and the likelihood that he was just messing about and didn't intend to put anyone in danger, but felt that a message needed to be sent. For goodness' sake If they're that dangerous just fucking ban them, don't ruin someone's life for playing with a toy.
I don't know what you'd achieve by telling HIV-infected children that many adults contract HIV through their own carelessness. Likewise I can't see the point of telling them there's no Santa Claus. Doesn't make it less true though.
Don't allow owners of copyright to pick and choose whom they license it to. If I think I can knock together a decent Blu-Ray edition of Apocalypse Now I ought to be able to pay the same price for the rights to do that as the publisher of the DVD has paid. Same if I think the current DVD release sucks and I can do it better. Same if I think there'll be a demand for the new Neal Stephenson novel in a waterproof version for reading in the bath. Or, God forbid, paperback.
Allowing anyone to pay a set royalty to publish a given work in their preferred format would make cheaper versions widely available (movies and TV shows on SVCD, DVDs in slip cases, current top ten singles on a CD, novels on tissue paper or in HTML), which would make people less likely to turn to piracy.
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My most demoralising day as a police employee was reading a self-congratulatory intranet news article about how some 20-year-old had been successfully prosecuted and sentenced to a prison term for pointing a laser pointer at a police helicopter. Apparently the judge acknowledged the kid's lack of any previous criminal history and the likelihood that he was just messing about and didn't intend to put anyone in danger, but felt that a message needed to be sent. For goodness' sake If they're that dangerous just fucking ban them, don't ruin someone's life for playing with a toy.
No, making a spelling error while professing to use decent grammar is not an example of irony.
True, but he also talked about making an effort to write clearly. Correct grammar is part of that, but using the right letters helps too.
I don't know what you'd achieve by telling HIV-infected children that many adults contract HIV through their own carelessness. Likewise I can't see the point of telling them there's no Santa Claus. Doesn't make it less true though.
Well, quoit.
Don't allow owners of copyright to pick and choose whom they license it to. If I think I can knock together a decent Blu-Ray edition of Apocalypse Now I ought to be able to pay the same price for the rights to do that as the publisher of the DVD has paid. Same if I think the current DVD release sucks and I can do it better. Same if I think there'll be a demand for the new Neal Stephenson novel in a waterproof version for reading in the bath. Or, God forbid, paperback.
Allowing anyone to pay a set royalty to publish a given work in their preferred format would make cheaper versions widely available (movies and TV shows on SVCD, DVDs in slip cases, current top ten singles on a CD, novels on tissue paper or in HTML), which would make people less likely to turn to piracy.